Arts Council Malta has joined the EU National Institutes for Culture (Eunic), a network which aims to expand the role of culture in Europe and to strengthen cultural dialogue, exchange and sustainable cooperation with countries outside the EU.
The membership was unanimously approved in Madrid when the general assembly voted officially to accept Arts Council Malta as its latest member.
Eunic’s mission is to promote European values and to contribute to cultural diversity inside and outside of the EU through collaboration between European cultural institutes around the world.
“I am delighted to welcome Arts Council Malta as a member of Eunic global,” said Eunic Global director Helena Kovarikova.
“This completes the representation of all 28 EU member states. Eunic is in the process of developing strategies in line with the EU agenda for culture and Arts Council Malta will now be directly involved in this process. I am confident that this will be mutually beneficial.”
Arts Council Malta chairman Albert Marshall added that Arts Council Malta’s Eunic membership will serve to increase Malta’s European presence and global significance in the cultural and creative sectors.
“Our membership will strengthen the close collaborations with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the international work of Maltese artists and public cultural organisations.’’
Formed in 2006, Eunic is a leader in culture cooperation governed by its 33 members from 28 countries and over 90 clusters based in different locations around the globe. Eunic’s members work in over 150 countries with over 2,000 branches and thousands of local partners.
They work in the arts, language, youth, education, science, intercultural dialogue and development sectors. The members employ over 25,000 staff and have a combined turnover of more than €2.5 billion.
Eunic is the vital partner for international cultural affairs because of its special expertise and world-spanning network. Serving as competence pool and think-tank for European institutions, it complements EU initiatives and activities in the field of culture.
As a new Eunic global member, Arts Council Malta will be able to integrate the geographic and thematic strategic approach of the network into its own strategy, especially in relation to the Mediterranean region.
The council is also in the process of drawing up a five-year strategy based on a five-pronged approach. One of these is internationalisation, a new strategic priority.
The council also aims to create a platform for dialogue on international cultural relations through the upcoming IFACCA World Summit, to be held in Malta in 2016.
It will also play an active role in the delivery of European work plan for culture during the Maltese presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2017 and Valletta 2018.